Running With the Vampires Chapter 3
by Alice Veil
Summary: Next Chapter of my glorious fanfiction - Anna encounters some strange new people. Reviews!


Chapter 3 - Strangers

My Mum had packed me sandwiches and an apple to eat, but also gave me a shiny two-pound coin just in case I got hungry. Dad didn't know that Mum had given me two-pound, so he gave me another two-pound coin to buy myself some lunch. I smiled at my scheme, _how_ Mum and Dad could be so silly as to give me money and think I would spend it on food I didn't know.

I waited politely in the Lunch queue while Kelsey bought her lunch, a cheese toasty, pocketed the two two-pound coins with another sly smile, and followed Kelsey to sit with her friends at their usual table.

As we were a few feet from the Lunch queue, I inclined my head to the left, and gasped.

I couldn't help but stare.

There were four of them in total, three females and one male.

One of the females had waist-length silvery blonde hair, and the most astonishing clear blue eyes, like you could swim in them. She was laughing, and when she laughed her lips parted and a set of gleaming white teeth were revealed, shining and resplendent. The effect of her light hair on her chalk-white skin made her look like an angel, or a wintry ghost.

Next to her was an oriental-looking female with shoulder length silky sleek black hair that you just wanted to touch. Her green eyes stood out from her pale skin and from beneath her curtain of dark, straight hair. The contrast was spectacular, and hard to tear your eyes from.

Across from her was the male. He had short, but soft, chocolate brown hair and exquisite liquid gold eyes. He was definitely the most handsome boy I had ever seen. His features were straight, and his lips were pale. He looked younger than the rest, as did the girl with silver-blonde hair, the others seemed at least sixteen or seventeen, maybe he and the girl were my age?

Although they were all extremely beautiful, and strange, in their own ways, the most extraordinary was the female on the left of the male. Her flaming red hair cascaded down her back like long, wavy flames, and when she tossed it over her shoulder, the sunlight reflected off of her brilliant hair, casting a fantastic glow and nearly blinding me. Her blood-red lips were smooth and full, and she had the same green, almond-shape eyes as the oriental female. She had the slim, willowy figure of a catwalk model, and the elegance and grace of a ballerina, she was _perfect_.

Though they looked completely different, if you looked closer they seemed similar, like they had picked up each others habits, or something. They had the same elegance and grace about them, even the boy, the same pale skin, and the same blank look when they caught people staring at them in awe. They reminded me of the young man I had seen in the paint shop, he had the same air about him as these people did. They were like him, _exactly_ like him.

I turned away quickly; these people were so inhumanly beautiful.

"Um, Annabelle?" Kelsey said quietly, not hearing my scowl, but still trying to follow my gaze. Her eyes finally rested on the four beautiful people in front of us. "Oh…" she caught on quickly. "They're the Pennison family. Well, Harriet, Gabriella and Tom are. Claudia, Anthony and Nicholas are 'friends' though they still call themselves a family." Kelsey saw my confused expression and then started to elaborate.

"Harriet is the really pretty one with ginger hair," she said, her tone accented with envy. "Gabriella is the light-blonde one, Tom is the boy, obviously, and Claudia is the Japanese girl. Anthony and Nicholas pick them up from school and sometimes you see some of them around town together."

"Don't they have parents?" I asked, though it was none of my business. Kelsey seemed happy to oblige.

"They have adopted parents, if that's what you mean," I nodded, so she continued. "They're called Eve and Nathan. Eve has her own shop in Worthing, and Nathan is a writer. Eve sells her paintings and sometimes Nathan's work." She spoke about them as if she knew them, as if she knew them well enough to explain their life story, which was what she was practically doing.

"Has he written anything I know?" I asked, my interest true.

"Probably not," Kelsey scoffed. "He gets paid a lot though, for a writer who doesn't write anything that's any good." I felt sorry then for this Nathan, he didn't deserve to be scoffed at. Whatever he wrote, it was probably very good.

We carried on walking until we got to a table where several other people sat; Kelsey's friends. Kelsey slid into a seat next to a girl with skin problems and stared up at me, wanting me to sit down.

"Okay, this is everyone I was telling you about earlier. So this is Danielle," she pointed to the girl with skin problems, "this is Louise," she pointed to the girl sitting opposite her with dark hair, "and this is James and Carrie." She pointed to the clearly-related blonde people sitting either side of Louise. "They're twins!" she added. _That_ much was obvious.

"You know, Tom Pennison is in our class. His sisters are all in Year 11, except for Harriet," again, her tone was accented with envy as was Kelsey's, "she's in Sixth Form." She added, knowingly.

I waved and muttered a quiet 'Hey," at each of them, then turned my head back to the table of beautiful people.

I gasped and nearly dropped my lunch tray. Each one of the four people was staring at me with the same malicious glint in their entrancing eyes, like I was something they were going to eat, like a lion after he caught the lamb, before he was about to go in for the kill. I could have sworn that the red haired girl- Harriet- muttered something, because Claudia the Japanese girl was muttering something back. I know I couldn't hear what they we saying, but it seemed like it was something terrible and freaky because they were smiling menacingly at me. It was a terrifying experience. I shuddered, and turned back to the table, my face pale and my heart pounding loud enough for the world to hear.

I know it seems stupid, but when I looked at the Pennison family, I sensed something –something _more_. As if they weren't human, like they could put a spell over the people surrounding them, because it had worked on me. I think it was the way the walked or maybe it was their timeless beauty or their grace and elegance that made me sense this.

I had a sudden sense of Déjà vu as I realised that maybe this was how Bella felt on _her_ first day of school, when she had spotted Edward. The way he looked at her, the way he acted towards her… it was too much to handle on her first day.

"Annabelle, are you alright? You look ill, should I take you to Matron? You haven't even touched your food." Kelsey asked, I realised I was day-dreaming again.

"No, I'm fine," I replied. She was being polite, but it was still annoying. "

You know what?" I said, standing up. "I'm done, I'll see you lot later." I picked up my lunch and carried it to the bins, where I disposed of it.

It wasn't until I was in my next lesson, Spanish, that I really started to think about the Pennison's. I wasn't paying much attention to the work I should've been doing, and the teacher didn't seem to mind that half of the class were messing around, so I had a little time to myself.

I felt like Bella, trying to discover what the family really _were_. It was obvious they were not human, but vampires? That seemed too much. But, then again, they had the pale skin, the blinding beauty, the elegance, and the way they looked at humans.

There I was, arguing with myself again.

Although I hated to admit, I had a feeling that I could be right about the Pennison's.

Could the Pennison family be the same as Edward and the Cullens? Could they possibly be _vampires_?


End file.
